INSEAD: February 2009 Archives

I’m happy to report that today, INSEAD was in the news, not just once but twice. Our Dean, Frank Brown, was featured in a front-page splash, besides Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston.

No, wait. He wasn’t at the Academy Awards with her :) I meant to say that the interview with him was featured on the front page of the Straits Times, our major broadsheet. Aha!

Click on the photo for a higher-res version of the full page article to read it. Frank’s main point was a little scary - good CEOs should leave after a maximum of 7 years, preferably 5. But from what I learnt in my Strategy Execution elective, it is true that over time, CEOs get less access to new information as they become surrounded with ‘yes-men’. Also, in time, the more towering the reputation a CEO has, the more unlikely - especially in the more reticient Asian cultures - he will receive honest feedback. Frank notes that many CEOs from companies that have been badly hit with the recent credit crunch, had long tenures.

Some transcultural anecdotes from Frank’s book, The Global Business Leader, are mentioned, including the tale of the Japanese executive who finally spoke up after a long meeting, about how the name of a new initiative sounded like ‘your ugly sister’ in Japanese.

I was a little sad to hear that Frank would be leaving in 2011, but I guess he’s practising what he’s preaching. As an INSEADer I have to say that Frank has been as candid as his name, when speaking with us. He doesn’t have airs and sometimes when we see him walking around the campus, we give him a wave and a smile. I’d say almost everybody has had a chance to have a chat with him.

The next article involving INSEAD is part of a job hunting theme. Specifically, it’s about how taking part in contests like Loreal’s EStrat could land jobs for the more successful contestants. One semifinalist, our classmate Sameer, was quoted:

Good job! Do us proud on 20 May and win!

We should congratulate INSEAD’s corporate communications team for landing 2 articles in a day. Of course it may not have been planned this way because two different papers were involved (albeit by the same parent company, SPH) and you don’t always know when exactly something’s going to be published.

Also, while senior writer Sandra Davy calls INSEAD a ‘premier’ school, in the L’Oreal article we’re mentioned, strangely, just as a ‘postgraduate’ business school. I’m not sure how that description adds value to the article, unless it means we’re older and have an unfair advantage against undergrads? (Am I just reading too much into this?)

In any case, the more senior professionals are aware of what INSEAD stands for. The more INSEAD gets into the local news, the more people will know about us and what we can offer.

Dear readers,

You won’t be hearing from me in a while - at least for the next several days. Everytime there’s a long time lag in between blog posts, please assume that I’m busy - most likely with schoolwork. Exams are just next week, and I have a lot to catch up on - more than many classmates.

Right now I really need to focus. My P3 was spent doing too many things, particularly for the club, but I think it’s a question of my own time management and not anyone else’s fault in particular. I have to be more efficient and as always, learn to say no even if it makes me feel bad at first.

Goodbye for now.

Being a Singaporean and living with family while studying at INSEAD Singapore campus comes with its pros and cons. Yesterday I had plans to finish writing my Negotiation essay so I wouldn’t be rushing it out at the last minute at 6pm today. However I learnt at the last minute (which is often the case) that relatives were invited over, and dinner lasted between 2-3 hours when I’d normally just take 30 minutes.

On one hand I wanted to walk off after finishing my meal, but it would have been rude. Plus, I hadn’t seen some of these relatives in a while, and my latest baby niece was there too. So I stayed till the end. Thus all the items in my to-do list were undone as of this morning and I wasn’t very happy about it.

This morning I continued writing my essay, and arrived in school at noon for MarkStrat decision #6. I learnt we were still kicking ass and received double the previous budget, which was remarkable. So things are much better now. I was also happy to receive feedback on what I could do to help a team mate work faster and will be doing that in future.

Then I dashed home to finish writing my essay, grabbing a quick lunch along the way. I reviewed and submitted it at 6pm on the dot.

I was going to attend the Chinese dinner tonight and buy 2 T-shirts, but alas my sizes were already sold out, and there were 2 more group assignments due soon that I hadn’t started on yet. It’s good to have fun, meet new people and support your ethnic week, but it’s quite another thing to show up for group meetings unprepared. I believe in completing the latter before enjoying the former. So I’m staying back to finish my work and not let my teams down.

Our bidding results for P4 electives are out. I got everything I bid for, except that one course I thought would be very relevant should I return to the public sector, “Business & Public Policy”, was dropped due to low demand! Which meant I had 1 remaining credit for P4 and had to pick another course.

So I tried registering for 2 other courses I had in mind as backups - Econ in Developing countries and The Making of Strategy, but alas both clashed with other courses I was going to take. So my next option was China Strategy, where at least I had a bit of familiarity and interest in the subject, and fortunately it did not clash.

I guess there are tradeoffs in everything we do but it makes me hope that whatever I bid for had better be worthwhile!

A quick one from me before I dash off to meet my Strategy Execution groupmates.

I had just one class yesterday, Market Driving Strategies, and the topic was on online advertising. As some of my main blog readers will know, I am no big fan of advertising when PR can do a more convincing, long-term job. 2 other classmates who had advertising backgrounds were speaking the most in class, and I didn’t feel like interjecting in something I didn’t believe strongly in. However after some time another classmate MG looked at me across the aisle and said, Go for it!

At one point, the question was what could a smaller online advertising company do when it lacked the clout of a big player. I said that smaller companies could partner with online publishers and give them a commission for referrals, which is exactly what I’m getting for my own blogs.

I was thinking about this topic again this morning. Pardon me if my imagery isn’t appropriate, but I think that if using big blitz advertising is like having a Caesarian (in the sense that everything is timed and executed as a concerted effort, and you have to pay extra for these services), and hiring a traditional PR firm is like getting induced (less interventionist but the baby still needs help in coming out), then I’m all for natural birth (no extra help required)!

Of course, your brand has to be a good enough ‘baby’ for that to happen. However, for most brands a lot of effort is required, for new launches and sustaining existing products or services. But I believe that getting mentioned and linked on the Wall Street Journal (which happened to our High Tech Club speaker Paddy Tan’s company) is much more powerful than buying a load of online ad placements or paying a bomb for a television spot. Of course there are exceptions, but if you also look at return on investment, PR or Word of Mouth gives you much better bang for the buck.

Also, I believe marketing is much more than taking the end product as a given, and promoting it. As we learnt in the core Marketing class and beyond, it’s also about playing a role in improving the product/service. Which is not what many marketing departments may get to do, from what I’ve seen. We need to break down the hierarchies and get more cross-pollination going. That may require structural and cultural changes.

After class we had a group Markstrat meeting. I’m pleased to report that we finally kicked ass at MarkStrat and that has lifted our mood. We had other teams laughing at us for weeks and calling our bluff, and we finally beat many of them! Mwahahahar.

Off to meet my Strategy Execution groupmates!

During lunch today, I met a P3 Fontysider who instantly associated my name with my blog. This has happened on many occasions this period. 2 of my new groupmates, JPD and SA, who were sitting with me, asked why don’t I blog about the new core subject group.

Well… I feel that we still don’t know each other that well as we only have two core subjects. I see these 2 guys in other electives so I know them better, but I don’t think I share elective classes with the other 2 groupmates (JS, SD). However I had a meeting with SD on Monday and we got our part of the homework done pretty efficiently. I also appreciated that while JPD was clearly overloaded with other work he still tried to help, and offered to lead the next assignment.

I do miss my old group sometimes - the easygoing hotel magnate GM, the ever efficient professor RB, the all-rounded rockclimber MEK and the passionate chessmaster ES. We used to joke about our behaviours by referring to our Meyers-Briggs personality types. What I appreciate (although at the time it felt awkward) was that we spoke up quite frankly to the specific people when things weren’t going well. I’m starting to see how useful that is. We argued because we cared.

With the new group, I’d say the dynamics are different - not quite opposite; just very different. This week, for instance, I never imagined I’d be the one wielding the whip. I just wanted to get our work done in a manner which doesn’t waste anyone’s time, and submit answers that gelled together. Maybe I should find out my new groupmates’ personality types too… I’m getting curious. My ‘Feeling’ side is fairly sensitive to nuances and I’m picking up some vibes.

I also have 2 elective groups. MarkStrat has made me feel a little topsy-turvy and I’m not enjoying this as much as the core Marketing course. Our virtual company went through a lull as the low-margin underdog but we have finally done well this week. However it’s mainly because rivals are spending lots of money on the next step while we’re still catching up. Also, having international classmates sometimes creates miscommunications even though we have good intentions. This happened with my old group and it seems to be happening with this group as well. Last week after the professor gave some tips in class about following through big ad spending with salesforce spending, I wanted to boost our sales force in our strongest channel by percentage as well as absolute numbers. As I changed the numbers in the software program, the 2 non-native English speakers in my group shouted incredulously, “What are you doing?!”, then we realised we meant to do similar things. We just had to stay calm! Also, 2 of us are risk takers and the other 2 are conservative, so we sometimes have a split decision.

For Strategy Execution, I’m excited to be working with JL and JP who I think are great people who can be longlasting friends. It helps that I’ve known them for a longer period of time. Would you believe I’ve never worked with a fellow Asian from P1 until now!? I appreciate how the administration arranges things so that we get good exposure to other nationalities, though. Here’s hoping for a most productive assignment with ingenious solutions!

Gotta go sleep. Marketing class is in the morning and we have to write a 10 page memo by Friday. Ugh!!!

2 classmates posted this INSEAD Cabaret video, which spoofs Apple’s ads. It shows how we put the IN in INternational ;-)

So this is probably the second and last time I organise a massage service in school, in my capacity as the outgoing campus rep (let the P1 reps take over!).

We had 4 signups for the morning session starting at 10am. One cancelled, while 2 didn’t show up. Fortunately we publicised the available slots from 10.30am to noon, and 2 walk-ins arrived, so that makes up for it.

Earlier on, one masseur (who got great reviews from classmates the last time he was here) was showing me how to find tense spots on the back. They were joking with each other about all sorts of things, and I realised they were such happy people. They’re doing the best they can with the abilities they were given, and I really want to help them.

I also like seeing the (previously tense) faces of students as they enter the room, and 30 minutes later they’re all relaxed and smiling. That makes me happy too!

My masseur Richard gave me a piece of advice when he massaged my head and some parts of it hurt. He asked if I had headaches, and remarkably I did have headaches last week (I usually hardly ever have headaches). I said it was probably due to eye strain as last week I had a lot of homework to do.

He told me to take good care of my eyes.

Now, when people with perfectly fine eyesight tell us to do that (like our parents and teachers), we may think, “OK…”, but sometimes we still forget to take eye breaks and stare at the computer screen for too long.

However, when a blind person who paid to have an operation so he could at least see some “shadows”, tells you to take care of your eyes, you listen!!!

I also noticed my masseur was well-informed about very recent events. I asked him how he kept up with the news, and he told me he listened to the BBC. I was impressed because he had hardly any vision yet he was so up to date. Some people with their full senses intact would probably be less interested in learning about the world around them.

While having my own massage I also told them a bit about INSEAD because Singaporeans like them, who live in the heartlands, have little or no idea who we are or what we do. In the end I’d like to say I made new friends and learnt a lot in school today - not just in the classroom but in the massage room.

Hope to see them back again :)